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Norwegian Who Killed 77 Says He Shared in Loss

OSLO — Anders Behring Breivik, the self-described anti-Islamic militant who admitted killing 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage last summer, sought Monday to include himself among the victims, telling a court that he was able to undertake the “gruesome” murders of scores of youths because they were “necessary” and telling bereaved families that he too had paid a high price.

Describing how he stalked and executed teenagers attending a political youth camp on the wooded island of Utoya, Mr. Breivik, 33, said: “I have never experienced anything so gruesome. It was probably even more horrendous for those I was hunting. But it was necessary. Yes, it was necessary. The July 22 operation was necessary.”

“When people say they have lost their most beloved, I also lost my entire family, I lost my friends,” he also said. “It was my choice. I sacrificed them, but I lost my entire family and friends on 22 July. I lost everything. So to a certain extent, I understand.”

Photo

Police officers flanked Anders Behring Breivik in court before his sixth day of trial began on Monday.Credit
Pool photo by Lise Aserud

Monday was the last scheduled day of testimony from Mr. Breivik, who maintains that he acted out of a dedication to fight political acceptance of the “Islamic colonization of Norway.” The court will now begin to hear from witnesses of the shootings on Utoya, which left a total of 69 people dead, and a bomb blast in central Oslo that killed eight more people.

With his guilt already established, the trial centers on the question of whether Mr. Breivik was insane at the time of the killings. Two psychiatric reviews have come down on opposite sides of the question. He insists that he was sane, and that efforts to portray him otherwise are part of a campaign to discredit his fight against Muslim immigration.

If he is found to have been sane, the presiding judges can sentence him to up to 21 years in prison, with a provision to keep him behind bars longer if he is still considered dangerous. If he is found to have been insane, Mr. Breivik can be kept in forced psychiatric care.

Two contradictory psychiatric reports have already been handed to the court, but the final decision will be in the hands of the two professional and three lay judges at the trial.

“This case is very simply that I am not a psychotic case and I am sane,” Mr. Breivik told the court on Friday. “I understand that when you see something too extreme, you might think it is irrational and insane. But you must separate political extremism from insanity.”

A version of this article appears in print on April 24, 2012, on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Norway: Massacre Suspect Insists He Was Also a Victim. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe